A Liberian nurse sprays disinfectant as a prevention against the deadly Ebola virus in the waiting area outside the ELWA isolation unit in Monrovia, Liberia on August 2.

Liberians Protest, Demand Government Pick Up Ebola Bodies

Riot police raced to quell a demonstration blocking Liberia's busiest highway Saturday as an angry crowd protested the government's delays in collecting the bodies of Ebola victims. The growing unease in Liberia, where nearly 300 people have died from the gruesome disease, raises the specter of social unrest.

Several bodies had been lying by the roadside for two days in the central town of Weala, 50 miles from the capital, Monrovia, and no government agency had picked them up, residents said. "Security people are on their way to put things under control," Information Minister Lewis Brown said in a radio address, directing his comments to protesters. "We don't want people taking the law into their own hands."

Liberia's government has ordered that all Ebola victims be cremated amid community opposition to neighborhood burials for fear of further contamination. Nearly 1,000 people have died of the disease in Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea.